Simple as That
by PBMunchkin-Nikkelangelo
Summary: Kyoya Ootori had just spent the last 2 years tracking down this mysterious girl who doesn't exactly welcome the former host with open arms. Things between them aren't as simple as when they were children. Just how complex can this relationship be? What if she's not as bad as she seems, can Kyoya convince his father otherwise?
1. Petals

_**Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Ouran High School Host Club. But I do own the OC.**_

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_A/N: The scene in the italics is a flashback of when Kyoya was a child. Even at such a young age, I still see him as a smartass so don't judge me. The regular text is in the present. Kyoya has just finished college and he's in his first few years of working at the hospital with his brothers and father. Yes, him and his brothers are still in the "game" for the title because their dad likes to take his sweet ass time._

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**Chapter 1:** _Petals_

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"_Flowers."_

"_I presume you want to talk about the subject of flowers?" the young Ootori said matter-of-factly._

_His friend ignored his tone and proceeded to ask her question, "You know when the girls at school would do that thing where they would pick the petals off and say 'he loves me, he loves me not?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Didn't those girls ever think to count the petals? Starting with 'he loves me' - if it's an even number of petals, it's 'he loves me not'. If it's an odd number of petals, it's 'he loves me'," she concluded._

_The young Ootori had never thought about it that way. Being at the age that he was, he really felt like this friend was coming on to something. He stared at her with curious eyes, silently urging her to go on. Her eyes darted around the shop._

"_That tulip in the corner – 6 petals, he loves me not. Those roses near the front window – 5 petals, he loves me. Poppies – loves me not. Sunflowers – loves me," she quickly added up._

_She was going to name off every flower in the shop if Kyoya hadn't stopped her. He tapped her shoulder, making her whip around and blink her summer cloud-colored eyes at him. He cleared his throat and presented an Iris flower to her._

"_3 petals," she blushed._

* * *

Kyoya banged on the apartment door, resisting the urge to hop right back into his car and forget he ever went there. He didn't want to even be caught _dead_ there. He paused and then continued his assault on the door. The door yanked open, only to be stopped by the dead bolt.

"I _told_ you I ain't on the pipe no more! That was a one-time shot, so quit-" the resident snapped.

The rest of her sentence got caught in her throat when she saw who was at the door. He spent 2 years narrowing down her location; she slammed the door in his face. He was an Ootori and he wasn't giving up that easily. His raised his fist to the door until it swung open again.

"What the _hell_, why are you here? What do you want? How did you find me?" she whispered harshly, while pulling him inside.

He took note of her appearance: her dark hair was bed-messy and there were bags under her stormy eyes. She wore a wrinkled t-shirt with a soda stain near the bottom hem and fraying jean shorts.

"And what the fuck are you doing banging on my door like that? It's 2 in the fucking morning, you asswipe. Decent people are trying to sleep and I'm trying to finish my heist on GTA. Do you have any idea how much harder it is to hear the cops coming when the TV is on mute? Jesus Christ, Kyoya…"

Kyoya rolled his eyes at her and then looked at his surroundings. The only light in the room was the coming from the large TV in the corner of the living room. In the poor lighting he saw the kitchen counter piled high with dishes, bills and unopened letters scattered on the dining table, the chairs knocked over, laundry hanging from the ceiling fan and tucked into the bookshelves, and trash all over the coffee table. He squinted at the pile of junk and noticed familiar orange pill bottles and bottles of half-drunken alcohol in the mix.

"And are you doing in this part of town. I'm surprised you haven't shown a hint of disgust on your face," she scoffed.

He paused before speaking, "Disgusted... is an understatement. Just look at this place."

At that moment, he spotted something in the corner.

"So I've been busy. Besides it's just me here, and it's not like I get any visitors until you came along," she said defensively.

In the corner on the edge of the windowsill was a small round flower-pot. A budding iris was poking out of the pre-fertilized soil.

"_3 petals."_

Without saying another word, Kyoya turned his back and headed towards the door. He stopped for a second.

"I will see you later this evening," he mumbled and then exited the apartment.


	2. Rain

_**Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. But I do own the OC – she who is to be named.**_

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_A/N: I really don't know where this story is going. It's more like a drabble. Please bear with me. Don't hate, I'm literally slurping up bowls of ramen and letting my fingers just run across the keyboard. There's really no direction of the plot…just yet._

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**Chapter 2: **_Rain_

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"_I do not understand, what's the point of all this?" the young Ootori questioned._

_He stayed in the doorway, sheltering himself from the downpour. He watched his female companion practically rolling around in his front lawn. She was just about swimming in the puddles._

"_Come back inside! You could get sick," he cried out._

"_A little water won't hurt anyone," she teased._

_Kyoya observed her behavior and actions carefully. Her outfit was coated with mud and her hair was an unruly mess, but that was all overlooked when he saw the ear-to-ear grin on her face. She rushed up to him and tugged on his sleeve, making it wet._

"_Come on, Kyo. Your daddy doesn't have to know. We'll play in the puddles, Fuyumi-san can help clean us up, then we'll be dry before your daddy can even know," she said persuasively._

_The young Ootori found his friend to be very deceitful, but was convinced otherwise. She pulled him into the rain and the two of them splashed around in the enormous puddles. He cupped his hands together and tossed handfuls of rain water at his friend. The pair laughed together and time flew by. That was until they saw a car pull up to the driveway._

"_Uh-oh," Kyoya whispered._

_His friend looked over at him and gave him an apologetic look._

"_I'm sorry, Kyo."_

* * *

Her attention was on the wall clock above her TV. Her eyes darted from the clock to her cellphone, and then to her laptop on the coffee table. She couldn't bring herself to sleep after he left the apartment; she could feel his judgment still lingering in the air. He knows where she lives, what else could he possible know about her. Clock – it was getting closer to six o'clock. Cellphone - no new messages. Laptop – email account on one tab and her social network account on another.

She took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest. He has her address but it took 2 years for him to narrow it down to this exact location, why did it take so long? 2 years – not including the amount of time it took for him to catch on to her disappearance. He probably wasn't able to get access to any of his go-to resources without seeming suspicious because as far as she knows, he's not allowed to associate with her anymore. But if he has her address, he probably got the whole package. Her call history, her credit card history, her employment history, and – God forbid – her internet history.

"Damnit," she grumbled.

Clock, cellphone, laptop. When she heard someone knocking on the door, she nearly jumped out of her skin. She froze in place, having an internal battle with herself on whether to open the door or not.

"Are you going to let me it? It is rude to just leave someone out in the rain like this," a voice called from behind the door.

She stumbled to the door and turned the dead bolt. She regained her composure before opening the door.

"You have no business being here, so I suggest you take you and your $700 pair of spectacles over to your stretch limo and drive _away_," she tried warding him off.

It obviously didn't work because he gently pushed her aside and closed the door behind him.

"Um, I'm sorry but in your mind, did the words that came out of my mouth translate to 'Hey, chummy ol' pal, come on it. Make yourself at home. _Mi casa es su casa_'?"

"I took my car," he replied, but not to her question.

"What?"

"You said to go back to my _limo_, and I'm telling you that I drove here in my car," he reiterated.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me backtrack and rephrase that sentence for you; you and your fancy-dancy glasses can go over to your _car_ and – GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she yelled.

"This is an apartment."

_This _man… she watches CSI; she can make his death look like an accident. Her eyes followed him as he took off his blazer and draped it over one of the dining chairs. He looked at her. The only sounds in the room were the rain patting against the windows and the fire alarm beeping to replaces its batteries.


	3. Mess

_**Disclaimer: Yup, yup, yup – I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. But the OC is MINE!**_

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_A/N: These chapters are coming in fast, I know. Enjoy it while you can. Really, all I'm doing is thinking of a word and making the story kind of revolve around it. Not that hard. I know there are questions, but I promise there will be answers. Or not._

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**Chapter 3: **_Mess_

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"_Clean up, clean up – everybody do their share. Clean up," the young girl said with a sing-song voice._

_There were toys scattered all over Kyoya's room and one by one, she picked them up. She stuffed them back into her luggage and zipped it shut. The young Ootori's father thought buying toys for him was useless and a waste of money, so she would bring half of her toy box to him whenever she came over. She didn't mind sharing with her best friend. The girl looked over at her friend and saw that he was still napping on his bed._

"_Hehe, such a sleepy head," she giggled._

_She tiptoed out of the room and quietly shut the door. What would he do without her?_

* * *

Kyoya shoved handfuls of garbage into the trash bag and would look up every now and then at his old companion. She was pouting on the couch with her arms over her chest.

"Well, are you going to offer me some assistance? This is _your _trash." She didn't answer.

He shook his head and got off his knees. He headed toward the coffee table when suddenly; she set her foot on the table to block his path. She shook her head "no". Kyoya simply picked her leg up and replaced it on the ground. He reached for the trash on the coffee table when she abruptly stood up.

"Since you didn't take the hint, I'll spell it out for you. My stuff, my apartment, my rules. You don't just go bargaining into someone's house and touch all their stuff," she snapped.

"Obviously, you're hiding something. Step aside."

"Well, since you put it that way, I should just do as you say. No," she said, standing her ground.

"Okay."

The two of them stood there in silence for a few seconds. Kyoya then jumped to shove her out of his way and rummaged through the trash.

"HEY!"

She jumped onto his back, but what she was trying to hide was already in his hands. She pushed herself off of him and took a few steps back. She watched him carefully as he stared down at the items. He pushed away the rest of the trash and discovered more of them. There were empty alcohol bottled and spilt prescription pills, but one of the items he picked up and put into his pockets.

"What do you think your-"

"I'd watch what you say from now on v_ery_ carefully," he growled.

His height gave him the advantage of towering over her small frame. She couldn't hold her glare for very long and stormed off into the bathroom. He swore under this breath and went back to cleaning the apartment. The process was unpleasant; there were mouse traps (with the vermin still on there), expired food in the fridge, the trash bin was overflowing with junk, and the odor in the apartment was almost unbearable. He ended up filling 4 garbage bags and he tossed it in the dumpster behind the complex. Kyoya cleared out the apartment, but he still had some cleaning to do. With that in mind, he took note to double his maids' salary for doing this kind of stuff. He also took note to go to the supermarket, and it wouldn't hurt to ask for Haruhi's assistance.

After taking the trash out, he walked into the apartment and was hit by an unfamiliar yet infamous smell. Kyoya rushed over to the bathroom and banged on the door.

"I demand that you open this door right now!" he roared.

"You _demand_?" she scoffed from behind the door.

Kyoya was ready to kick the door down when it suddenly swung open. A cloud of smoke spilled out from the doorway and it make his eyes water.

"You need to relax, ol' pal," she said and shoved the lit blunt into his mouth.

He accidentally breathed in and he coughed up the inhaled smoke. The girl just laughed at him.


	4. Insomnia

_**Disclaimer: I don't frickin' own Ouran High School Host Club. But the girl/OC – who has yet to be named – belongs to me.**_

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_A/N: You all have questions, I know and I'm getting around to answering them one by one. This is still kind of like a drabble, at least I think so. I'm sorry if this is a little confusing but you'll understand soon enough. Oh and in the last chapter, she was smoking marijuana._

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**Chapter 4: **_Insomnia_

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"_Psssst! Kyo, I can't sleep," his friend whispered._

_If only the young Ootori knew that was going to be the first of many restless nights for the both of them. He lifted his head from the pillow sleepily and blinked at her._

"_Just go back to sleep," he yawned._

_He didn't quit understand why his friend couldn't sleep and his eyelids were getting heavier by the second._

"_Whatever you want, make it quick before I fall back asleep," he yawned again._

"_No, you can't go to sleep," she whispered back._

_He suggested many things to her; counting sheep or counting to a hundred, drinking warm milk (which he had to get), doing jumping jacks – everything he could think of._

"_Why won't you just go to sleep," Kyoya whined._

_When he didn't hear a response, he turned around to sleep her sprawled out on his bed, snoring away. He ended up sleeping on the couch that night._

* * *

Kyoya grabbed the girl's shoulder and shoved her against the wall.

"This is _illegal_, do you hear me?" he snarled, showing her the blunt.

"For your information, no it's not – at least not for me. It's _medical_ cannabis, I have a card for this shit," she assured.

"Yes, a card that only works in the state of California. How did you get this stuff through security?" he questioned.

"You see that's where you're wrong. I didn't smuggle anything. Some folks that I know here understand my 'medical condition' and they didn't mind helping a friend out."

The alcohol, the pills, the smoking – who was this chick? He shoved off of her and paced around the living room. Was this a mistake? Was it a mistake to try to help her in the first place? He pulled at his hair and collapsed on to the couch. He just sat there, trying to process the current situation. Seeing her old friend in this position – she couldn't help but feel a slight pang in her chest. She knew she was trouble, and that was one of the reasons why she disappeared 2 years ago. She didn't ask from him to come back into her life. He brought this upon himself. She was prepared for him to just get up and leave, and never come back. She wanted him to leave. Someone like him shouldn't get involved with someone like her.

"Kayako," he barely whispered.

She looked from at him, hearing her name roll off his tongue made her shiver.

"I just don't understand," he continued.

"You don't have understand anything, just accept it. There's nothing you can do," she whispered back.

She thought she was beyond repair, that was her problem and Kyoya was going to prove her wrong – one way or another. He placed his elbow on the armrest and rested his cheek against his palm. What was he going to do with her? What would his father do if he found out he was even breathing the same air as her? He had to be very caution about his timing, his words – there was no need to overcomplicate an already complicated situation. All the scenarios, all the possibilities only stressed him out more.

Kayako looked down at her friend on the couch as he nodded his head. He was literally thinking himself to sleep. She was tempted to boot him out, the apartment didn't have a room and he was sitting on where she slept, but thought against it. She pulled her blanket over his lap and walked away. She took a better look at the place and noticed the difference. Sure there were still dishes and dust, but the room looked a lot cleaner. She just hoped he didn't throw out anything important. Kayako was too lazy to check and sat at the dining table.

"You hunt me down, you clean my apartment, and you give me a lecture – what more can you do?"

She looked down at the numerous bills on the table.

"You can pay my bills," she joked.


	5. Alarm

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club. I do own the OC, Kayako.**_

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_A/N: Hey, uh, so what do you think so far? The story is doing pretty good, so I'm going to work on it some more. Please read and review!_

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**Chapter 5: **_Alarm_

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_The sunlight slipped through the curtains, lighting the room gently. The young Ootori turned over on to his side, not wanting to get up just yet. He would see to that whoever decided to wake him up that morning would pay severely. Last night, his restless friend made it her mission to keep him awake as well. They were talking to each other via webcam._

"_Don't you ever sleep?" he remembered asking her._

"_Who needs sleep? Sleep is for the weak!" she said triumphantly. _

"_I need sleep; at least 8 hours of it. And I am not weak! Who was it that beat you at arm wrestling the other day? Me."_

"_8 hours?! Do you have any idea what I can do in 8 hours? A million-bazillion things! And I let you win, just so I wouldn't have to hear you cry for a million-bazillion hours," she stuck her tongue at him._

"_Oh yeah? Then put 'push-ups' on your list of a-million-bazillion-things-to-do while your friend, Kyoya Ootori, is asleep because I still beat you!" he ridiculed._

_Her jaw dropped on the screen, showing her missing baby teeth. The argument continued on and Kyoya ending up falling asleep on his laptop. They may have different views on sleeping, but they were the same waking up._

* * *

_Riiiiing! Riiiiing! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! HOOOOOOOONK! HOOOOOOOONK! _Kyoya's eyes snapped open and he grew high agitated with the amount of noise in the room. He pulled the blanket over his head, cursing under his breath. There were multiple alarms going off – a watch, a cellphone alarm, the alarm clock on the end table next to the couch, the wallclock, and even an online alarm clock on the laptop. The alarms eventually shut off on its own and Kyoya sighed in relief, slowly sinking back into his slumber. 5 minutes later; _Riiiiing! Riiiiing! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! HOOOOOOOONK! HOOOOOOOONK!_

"For fuck's sake!" Kayako snapped.

She got up from her makeshift bed on the floor and rushed to shut off the alarms. Within seconds she pulled the battery out from her cellphone, unplugged the wallclock, closed her laptop, threw the watch that was under the couch out the window, and practically disassembled the alarm clock on the end table. The room was silent again and she crawled back under her blanket.

"I see you still have a hard time waking up in the morning," Kyoya mumbled.

"Shut up."

"I'm guessing about half of those letters on the table are noise complains about your ridiculous amount of alarms," he concluded.

"I said shut up."

"I bet you have to change the alarm sound on your cellphone because after a while, your start to get use to the sound and it doesn't wake you up."

"Keep it up. I will smother you with that pillow you're sleeping on and toss you into the dumpster out back," she threatened.

Kyoya remained quiet for the next couple of minutes and just stared at the ceiling. After those few minutes passed, Kayako sat up. Kyoya looked over and saw that she was in the space between the couch and the coffee table. The two of them met eyes for a second, and then looked away. The air was tense and extremely comfortable to Kayako.

"I'll, uh, make some coffee."

She got up and headed towards the kitchen. There was the coffee machine, but no coffee pot.

"There was a crack in the pot," Kyoya said from the living room. "So I threw it out."

"What?! No, why did you do that? I mean come on, it's nothing a little duct tape can't fix. Unlike you, I don't exactly have money to spend," she grumbled.

She went to the pantry and pulled out the jar of instant coffee. She'd rather run to the nearest café than drink this crap. But there were two problems with that: she didn't trust Kyoya staying here (who knows what else he'll find) and she didn't want him tagging along either. She couldn't let him go out there in broad daylight; it will attract way too much unwanted attention.

"I guess, if I put enough sugar in it…" she trailed off.

"Your sugar container wasn't sealed all the way, so the ants got in it."

"Kyoya, you seriously got to learn some things. That is free protein, right there."

Kyoya looked back at her from the couch.

"Seriously?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up."


	6. Glasses

_**Disclaimer: Alright, alright, alriiiiiiight. Listen here, I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. Kayako – yes, she's my OC.**_

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_A/N: These stories are appearing from thin air and I'm typing them down as fast as I can. To those who don't really like this story: you're on chapter 6, what are you doing still reading it then? To those who do: thanks! Read and review. Much appreciated._

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**Chapter 6: **_Glasses_

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_The young Ootori did not appreciate his friend laughing right in his face._

"_Look at you! You have to wear glasses!" she pointed. _

_Kayako had always assumed that her friend was just clumsy, but seeing him in those wired-framed glasses put the icing on the cake._

"_Be quiet, you! I'm going to laugh at you when you have to wear glasses."_

"_Nuh-uh! Unlike you, I eat my carrots and I don't read in the dark – I don't read at all. Problem solved!"_

"_You're a liar. I saw you feeding your carrots to your dog during snack time!" Kyoya shouted back._

_This was a pretty serious fight for the both of them – as serious as two 6-year-olds can get. What comes around goes around._

* * *

"No… No, no, no, no. Fuck!" her outburst caught her visitor's attention.

"What is it this time? You can't find the cups? They're all dirty so you're going to have to find something else," Kyoya said plainly.

"It's not that I can't find the cups; I can't see them."

Kyoya looked at Kayako and it suddenly dawned on him.

"You have to wear glasses?" he suggested.

"NO! I wear contacts – something you should probably invest in because you still look like that 6-year-old nerd I remember back then," she shot at him.

His eyebrows knitted together, but then his expressed changed when he realized what probably happened to her contacts. It must have been buried underneath all that trash he picked up.

He cleared his throat to get her attention, "Judging by half of the furniture in this apartment, I'm positive you are familiar with the activity of 'dumpster diving'. You should have no problem retrieving your contacts if you want them _that_ badly."

"Firstly, I shop at consignment stores, not out back behind the complex. Secondly, you are _not_ telling me that you threw away my contacts," she snarled at him.

"I did not throw away your contacts – at least not without knowing that I did," he smirked.

She pushed him aside and peeked out through the front door. The garbage truck was just leaving the complex and Kayako's groaned with aggravation.

"Shit…"

"You know, you must stop using such profound words or I might get offended," the Ootori remarked.

"You know, you must get that stick out your ass or _I_ might get offended," she semi-mocked. "This is all _your _fault!"

"My fault? Whatever do you mean?" he said sarcastically. "Maybe if you learned how to clean up after yourself, you would have known where they were."

Kayako stomped off dramatically, making it hard for Kyoya to hide his amusement. She stood on her toes as she reached on top of the bookcase, feeling around for something. She grasped on to what she was looking for and turned her back to him.

"Karma's such a bitch," she said under her breath.

"What?"

She turned back around, trying to cover her face with hair, and made a bee-line towards the bathroom door. She wasn't quick enough because Kyoya blocked her way.

"What's the big rush? That can't be what I think it is, is it?" he said, trying to look at her face.

"Stop it!"

The sudden change of tone almost caught him off guard. She threw her arms down to her sides, revealing her face.

"You're… wearing glasses?" he pretended to be surprised.

He bent over and laughed at her. Kayako's glasses were basically two big magnifying glasses attached to her face and the frames were ridiculously thick.

"Stop laughing! This is why I need my contacts," she cried, covering her reddening cheeks.

He continued her to laugh and every time he looked up at her, he had to take a breath to laugh some more.

"Not so funny now that it's you," he said between chuckles.

Knowing her, he knew she was going to make him pay one way or another, but the monstrosity on her face made it all worth it. Just how long will it take for him to order another pair of contacts for her? Kayako prayed it wasn't too long.


End file.
